Making hand milled soap is an easy way to learn how to make soap for beginners. Keep reading to learn how to make hand milled soap with an easy charcoal & anise soap recipe from Amanda Gail Aaron’s new book, The Complete Guide to Natural Soap Making.

New Natural Soap Making Book

Is soap making a new hobby you’ve been wanting to explore? Have you made soap before but want to learn other soap making techniques? Learn a variety of soap making methods and explore easy to follow soap recipes and tutorials in Amanda Gail’s new book, The Complete Guide to Natural Soap Making.

As we discover in Amanda Gail’s new book, there are many different ways to make soap. New and beginning soapmakers will learn how to craft natural homemade soaps using five different soap making techniques. These natural soap making methods include:

Hand Milled Soap Making

Melt and Pour Soap Making

Liquid Soap Making

Hot Process Soap Making

Cold Process Soap Making

In addition to comprehensive, easy to follow soap making tutorials, Amanda’s book also contains numerous natural soap recipes. Each of these recipes enable you to explore all of the soap making methods mentioned, then further build on that knowledge. In addition, you’ll also gain insight on essential soap making equipment and ingredients you need to get started. The book also contains insider soap design tricks and soap making techniques that will further guarantee your success.

Regardless of your preferred soap making method, you’ll find that soap making quickly becomes an addictive hobby. Therefore it won’t be long until you’re not only supplying natural soaps for your family, but for friends and coworkers too! You’ll also begin to build the foundation for achieving not just your soap making goals, but for starting a business to sell your natural soaps.

What Is Hand Milled Soap?

Two of the easiest ways for beginners to get started in soap making are through melt and pour soap making and hand milled soap making. While most of you are likely familiar with making melt and pour soap using a glycerin soap base, you may be less familiar with how to make hand milled soap.

If you’re looking for an easy (and affordable) way to learn how to make soap for beginners, then I highly recommend you learn how to make hand milled soap. You’ll find, that if you’re already a fan of handmade soaps, making hand milled soap is a great way to use up leftover soap slivers. It also allows you to customize your natural soaps with ingredients that offer additional benefits for your skin type.

Hand milled soaps are created by rebatching unscented (or leftover) soaps on the stovetop or in an oven. This is done to add scent and color, conditioning skin care ingredients or to salvage a botched cold process soap batch. Typically one makes hand milled soap by grating an existing soap bar, then mixing it will milk or water. Once the soap melts, other ingredients can be added to customize the fragrance, color or other properties of the soap.

Hand milling soap is an easy way to learn how to make custom natural soaps. The process is easier than making soap completely from scratch in which you combine lye and soap making fats. It’s also a safer process for anyone who has pets or small children in the home.

How to Make Hand Milled Soap

I hope that you’re as excited as I was the first time I learned how to make hand milled soap. Amanda was gracious enough to share her charcoal & anise hand milled soap recipe from her new book, which you can find below.

Anise & Charcoal Natural Soap Recipe

This stark black hand milled soap is naturally scented with anise, peppermint and lavender essential oils. Formulated with an easy to use hand milled soap base, this homemade soap recipe also contains activated charcoal. The addition of charcoal makes this hand milled soap perfect for acne prone skin, as charcoal works to draw out impurities, oils and toxins from skin.

Following is Amanda’s recipe for charcoal & anise soap (from her book) along with her instructions on how to make hand milled soap. This recipe yields four hand milled soap bars, each weighing approximately 113 grams. It can be made from start to completion in about an hour. You can use pre-bought soap shreds for this recipe. Alternately, you can also grate your own soap from bars of unscented cold or hot process soap.

Hi! I am an amateur crafter who is dabbling in a bit of everything to find out what my true passion is.
I think my reason for wanting to try my hand at soap-making is pretty simple and probably a driving force for a lot of others on this site- I am tired of having so many chemicals in and around my body. I am making a concentrated effort to incorporate more natural ingredients into my everyday life. (To the exhaustion of my awesome husband, my efforts range from cleaning supplies to non-Big Pharma remedies to the basic starting point of my day, which is my soap :))
After consulting many a webpage, I realize that I have a lot of great soap-making ingredients and ideas, but I am really not sure where to start. I think this lovely book will make for a great boost in my confidence in getting started and help steer me in the direction I would like to go.
Thank you for the time and passion you put into your site, and I appreciate your consideration for this drawing. Cheers!

What a Great offer. I started making soap recently and truly enjoy it. The aromas are so beautiful and I love the feel of soap without all the harmful chemicals. This is one book that would get used quite a bit as I plan to make Beauty and Brawny Baskets this year for Christmas gifts. The guys are going to love them as much as the ladies will.

I own an online cosmetic business where I create my own mineral makeup. Although I have never made soap, I’d like to create a facial soap that is so awesome that I can sell it on my website. I do believe, it’s very important to make a facial soap that is safe and effective, yet a pleasurable experience.

My favorite is hot process. I guess I like it the best because as a kid, I remember my grandmother making lye soap on the wood stove. I loved spending time with her so it only seemed right that when I started making soap, I wanted to cook it like she did.

I’ve been making CP soap for 8 years and enjoy each and every day! I do not sell the soaps I just use them and donate most of it to many homeless shelters in the western NC area,hoping to bring some joy to people. I would really like this book!

I love making cold process soap. The hard part about cold process for me is wait the 6 weeks for the soap to cure. I look forward to reading your new book to learn new processes. Thank you so much and have a wonderful evening.

Hello! I’m relatively new to soapmaking (about 1 year). But so far my favorite way to make soap is Cold Process. I’m enjoying making the colorful designs in my soaps and it allows me more time to do so.

Fell in Love with soap making when I made my first M&P soap for my son’s eczema. Now just getting into CP and can’t learn enogh… Love it so much, and would love it even more to have a buisness in it one day!

I’ve never made soap. But I really want to learn how to. I already make some of my own skincare/haircare products. I enjoy using essential oils to get just the right fragrance. Keeping my fingers crossed for this giveaway!

I am new to soap making. I started by making melt and pour soaps as gifts for my student’s parents this Christmas. I was hooked and I have now made several batches of cold process soap. It absolutely fascinates me that lye and water and some kitchen oils can combine to make soap!!! Just fascinating!!!

I have been making melt and pour soaps for about 12 years and every time is a challenge and enjoinment . People I give them to, love them and complement them. I have a number of books but I have been following your page and the articles are very good and informative.
I could use some advise in regard to marketing over the internet, and product qualities to make the soaps, such as whole sellers of bases and essential oils. The ones I use are form Michael’s and Hobby Lobby’s bases, and essential oils from a variety of suppliers.
I would like to enter the opportunity to get your free book.
Thanks,

My favorite shampoo bar is discontinued and the alternatives are expensive trials, so I found you in researching the possibility of making my own. I have most of the supplies already through my extensive love of crafting, and you make it seem approachable.

Recently took an intro to soap making class that used the cold process method. Since then, I have been scouring the internet looking for the perfect first recipe for me to try! Amanda Gail’s new book The Complete Guide to Natural Soap Making would be a great resource. I enjoy the information on your website!.

Hi! I’m so interested to learn how to make all types of soap. We just moved the Rocky Mountain area and when man I tell you everyone’s hair, skin and nails are super dry, it’s dry. It’s a daily struggle. Not only is it the desert like climate but i think it’s the altitude that contributes to the lack of moisture. And of course, since it’s so beautiful where we live one can’t help but stay outside and enjoy the view. So I’ve decided to make our own skin care products that nourish our skin and it starts simply with our soap. Looking forward to reading your book.